Ugly Talk

Episode 16 - Arrival and Translating Narratives

Released: Jul 31, 2017

The Story of Your Life is a short story by Ted Chiang following a woman whose understanding of an alien language has vastly altered her perception of reality. This story was later adapted into the multimillion dollar Sci-Fi motion picture Arrival. Experiencing both of these media, the throughline can be easily found, but the two stories are vastly different in their construction to aid in conveying their core message in a written format and a visual medium. In translating writing concepts between media, we have picked apart specific ways the story has been adapted to make it work better, and we will pass these teachings onto you.

Media Referenced in this Episode

Lessons from the Screenplay (inspiration for the episode) "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang Arrival film based on SoYL by Ted Chiang Daikatana by John Romero "Wild Cards" series by George RR Martin Persona / SMT series published by Atlus Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei (Digital Devil Story: Goddess Reincarnation) by Aya Nishitani Persona 3 by Atlus Digital Devil Saga by Atlus Paradise Lost by John Milton